Do the 2024 Presidential Candidates Care About the Environment?

It is less than two months away from the 2024 presidential election, and the American voters are trying to decide how to vote.? The primary issues seem to be the economy and immigration.? But what if you are more concerned about the environment.? Well, there has been very little discussion about the candidates’ position on the environment so it may be difficult to use the environment as your primary voting issue.?

When Kamala Harris was running for president in 2020, she came out clearly to ban fracking.? Now she says that her values have not changed relative to the environment, but all the other environmental issues can be improved without banning fracking.? You may also recall when the Inflation Reduction Act was up for vote, it was a tie, and Harris broke the tie with her positive vote.? She is probably going to continue with the environmental position of the Biden administration, although she may try to reverse Biden’s approval last year of a large oil drilling project in Alaska known as Willow.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, will no doubt continue with the environmental position during his presidential term.? And that is to continue with fossil fuels based on his repeated comment of “drill, baby, drill”.? It has also been reported that he asked the fossil fuel industry for one billion dollars of campaign money in exchange for supporting their industry.? He has also stated that he would again remove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and would dismantle many of Biden’s energy policies focused on emissions reduction.

The only possible change in Trump’s position on the environment may be the impact of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. being on his team.? Kennedy is a true environmentalist as exemplified by his book “Crimes Against Nature” which he wrote about 20 years ago.? He has also been an environmental attorney, and it may be possible that if Trump wins, Kennedy will have some influence on the new administration’s policy on the environment.?

??????????? My position on how to vote for a politician is not to pay attention to what they say they are going to do, but rather pay attention to what they have done.? This is a much better indicator as to what they will do in the future. An example is to look at what the U.S. has done in fighting climate change, which is measured by GermanWatch, an environmental research organization in Bonn, Germany, through its Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).?? The CCPI uses a standardized framework to compare the climate performance of 63 countries and the EU, which together account for over 90% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The climate mitigation performance is assessed in four categories: GHG Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use and Climate Policy.

??????????? According to CCPI, the highest ranked country is Denmark at #4 (CCPI doesn’t believe any country is worthy of #1, #2, or #3), while the U.S is ranked #57 and only 10 countries are ranked below the U.S.? Two countries’ ranking that may surprise you is China at #51, six positions above the U.S., and India at #7.? So, despite all the climate policies implemented by the Biden administration, we don’t seem to be improving the environment.?

What else can be done to improve the environment.? Something I have recommended in the past is for the newly elected president to propose a universal carbon tax based on the carbon footprint of every product, and it would have to be implemented by every major economy in the world.? If China agrees to it, which I doubt, the price of manufactured products from China would increase significantly because so much of its energy production is from dirty coal.? If you add the carbon emissions generated for shipping the products to the U.S., they may not be much cheaper than U.S. products, if at all.? A universal carbon tax could also shift the manufacturing of some of these products to Mexico which will probably make them cheaper than from China because of slightly lower wages and considerably shorter shipping distance.? Who knows, maybe this will improve the Mexican economy and reduce the immigration of Mexicans into the U.S. – or maybe some will even return home because of the improve economy.?

? When you vote in about six weeks, consider the economy, immigration, abortion, healthcare, Israel-Gaza, Ukraine and finally, the environment.?

?